"We will have a smaller, more profitable services business in the next two to five years w hich will have fewer people in it tomorrow than it does today," Whitman said.

But she wouldn't say what other units would be effected. When Shannon Cross of Cross Research asked, "Is every business unit going to a get a percentage to cut? Does it include any potential divestitures?" Whitman answered like a politician. She said the company did go to each business unit to determine how many people it needed but failed to say which units (besides HP ES) actually had too many people.

A former employee of HP's Business Process Outsourcing unit told Business Insider that HP was exploring selling BPO and that layoffs at HP ES have already begun.